The most powerful enemy of the Christian
is fear. Fear is the one thing which can most easily undermine our
faith and overwhelm our desire to serve and follow Jesus. We may
have a loved one who is behaving like a boor, but we won't confront
him. Why? Because we are afraid he will be angry at us. We may see
payday loan shops littering our town and functionally stealing from
our neighbors, but we won't challenge them.

This healing story is working on several
different levels. First, Jesus is healing a man who had been sick
for 38 years. The man was lying by the Bethzatha pool, known in
those days for its healing powers, but he had no one to help him
into the pool. Jesus asks the man if he would like to be made well,
the man of course says "yes," and Jesus calmly tells him to take his
mat, stand up and walk.

It is the only miracle story to appear in
all 4 Gospels. It is the one story almost everyone knows outside of
the birth story and the crucifixion. It is the feeding of the five
thousand. So, what's the big deal? Why all the repeat this
particular story so many times? Well, I think there is a simple
reason for that. In this story we find the richness and depth of who
Jesus is. We see the compassion, the power, the love. We find a
powerful metaphor for Holy Communion

These days most of us probably spend a lot
of time thinking about what we don't have. Most of us have less
money than we did 18 months ago. Most of us are older than we'd like
to be. Most of us have lost someone that we wish we could have back.
Most of us don't have the car or television or house we want. Most
of us look around our lives and we see what is absent. And that is
because our lives are filled with things that are finite, that have
limits. Not to bring you down, but someday, everything we have will
be gone.

"Now
standing there were six stone waters jars for the Jewish rites of
purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to
them, 'Fill the jars with water.' And they filled them up to the
brim. He said to them, 'Now draw some out, and take it to the chief
steward.' So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that
had become wine...he said, 'everyone serves the good wine first and
the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have
kept the good wine until now.'"-John 2: 6-10

The 64th Annual Central Illinois
District-Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (CID-LWML) convention was held on June 6, 2009, in
Springfield IL. The theme of the convention was “A Crown of Life,”
based on Revelation 2:10. Local women attending the convention were
Elaine Ray, Edith Keller, and Linda Huelskoetter, all of Lincoln.

Have you heard these words before? They
are both very familiar and very controversial. In this passage Jesus
is trying to explain his ministry to one of the religious leaders, a
man named Nicodemus, who has come to see him under the cover of
darkness

The work of the Holy Spirit is and always
has been mysterious. No one really understands it and no one can
predict its movements in the world. Yet despite this lack of
understanding the Spirit remains at the core of the Christian life
because it is our tangible connection to God.

There is a poem entitled, "Love is too Familiar a Word" and when I
approach passages like this it often pops into my head. Over and
over again we hear two things as Christians; God loves us and we
should love other people. We hear these words so often, and we are
told of God's love so frequently, that the saying becomes too
familiar. The word "love" loses its power and becomes a cliche with
little weight or influence in our lives. And when this happens it is
tragic.